Posted on 3 Comments

Crimes Against a Book Club

Best friends Annie and Sarah need cash – fast. Sarah, a beautiful, successful lawyer, wants nothing more than to have a baby. But balancing IVF treatments with a grueling eighty-hour workweek is no walk in the park. Meanwhile, Annie, a Harvard-grad chemist recently transplanted to Southern California, is cutting coupons to afford her young autistic son’s expensive therapy.

Desperate, the two friends come up with a brilliant plan: they’ll combine Sarah’s looks and Annie’s brains to sell a “luxury” antiaging face cream to the wealthy, fading beauties in Annie’s La Jolla book club. The scheme seems innocent enough, until Annie decides to add a special – and oh-so-illegal – ingredient that could bring their whole operation crashing to the ground.

Hilarious, intelligent, and warm, Crimes Against a Book Club is a delightful look at the lengths women will go to fend for their families and for one another.

Posted on 3 Comments

Crimes Against a Book Club

Best friends Annie and Sarah need cash—fast. Sarah, a beautiful, successful lawyer, wants nothing more than to have a baby. But balancing IVF treatments with a grueling eighty-hour workweek is no walk in the park. Meanwhile, Annie, a Harvard-grad chemist recently transplanted to Southern California, is cutting coupons to afford her young autistic son’s expensive therapy.

Desperate, the two friends come up with a brilliant plan: they’ll combine Sarah’s looks and Annie’s brains to sell a “luxury” antiaging face cream to the wealthy, fading beauties in Annie’s La Jolla book club. The scheme seems innocent enough, until Annie decides to add a special—and oh-so-illegal—ingredient that could bring their whole operation crashing to the ground.

Hilarious, intelligent, and warm, Crimes Against a Book Club is a delightful look at the lengths women will go to fend for their families and for one another.

Posted on Leave a comment

The Case Against Sugar

From the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat, a groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé that makes the convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making us very sick.

Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever. Obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these, and other, critical, society-wide, health-related problems. With his signature command of both science and straight talk, Gary Taubes delves into Americans’ history with sugar: its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, the contemporary overuse of high-fructose corn syrup. He explains what research has shown about our addiction to sweets. He clarifies the arguments against sugar, corrects misconceptions about the relationship between sugar and weight loss, and provides the perspective necessary to make informed decisions about sugar as individuals and as a society.

Posted on 3 Comments

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations

Most people don’t expect you to understand what we’re going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don’t expect you to care. And even if you care, they don’t expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don’t expect it to last. We do. – Alex and Brett

A generation stands on the brink of a “rebelution”

Do Hard Things is the Harris twins’ revolutionary message in its purest and most compelling form, giving readers a tangible glimpse of what is possible for teens who actively resist cultural lies that limit their potential.

Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, the authors weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as the launching pad of life.  Then they map out five powerful ways teens can respond for personal and social change.

Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry from the heart of an already-happening teen revolution challenges a generation to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today.

Now includes:
–A new introduction from the authors, “Looking Back, Looking Ahead”
–Questions (and Stories) To Get You Started
–A list of 100 Hard Things to help inspire you
–A study guide for personal or group use

Posted on 3 Comments

A Torch Against the Night: An Ember in the Ashes, Book 2

The sequel to the explosive New York Times best-selling debut, An Ember in the Ashes, that’s captivated readers worldwide.

A Torch Against the Night takes listeners into the heart of the Empire as Laia and Elias fight their way north to liberate Laia’s brother from the horrors of Kauf Prison. Hunted by Empire soldiers, manipulated by the Commandant and haunted by their pasts, Laia and Elias must outfox their enemies and confront the treacherousness of their own hearts.

In the city of Serra, Helene Aquilla finds herself bound to the will of the Empire’s twisted new leader, Marcus. When her loyalty is questioned, Helene finds herself taking on a mission to prove herself – a mission that might destroy her instead.

Posted on Leave a comment

Confessing the Scriptural Christ against Modern Idolatry: Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Truth in Scientific and Biblical Conflict

The doctrine of Scripture determines precisely how theology is done and what authority theological statements–including those in sermons, dogmatic texts, and confessional writings–possess. At stake is nothing less than truth itself and the possibility of communicating the truth of Christ to mankind.

This book compares the pre-modern approach to Scripture, following early Christian theologians, Martin Luther, and historic Lutheranism, with modernism, starting with Socinianism and continuing with Enlightenment philosophers and recent modern theologians, especially the neo-orthodox. These differences are most clearly visible in the doctrine of Scripture, especially its inspiration, and the method for establishing true facts. Modern theology starts with scientific truth as a given and will not go against it. Pre-modern Christianity started with Scripture and assumed its inerrancy, by virtue of its speaker: God, who is inerrant.

Modernism is not easily defined in traditional terms, but it represents an overturning of biblical Christianity. In academic theology confessing and sure facts are disallowed by scientific and scholarly doubt. Modernism, or Enlightenmentism, explains why bold Christian confessing has diminished. Modern exegesis and hermeneutics are the primary obstacles.

The destructive role of modernism and scientific values in historically confessing churches is explored, using the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as an example.This book compares the pre-modern approach to Scripture, following Early Christian theologians, Martin Luther, and historic Lutheranism, with modernism, starting with Socinianism and continuing with Enlightenment philosophers and recent modern theologians, especially the neo-orthodox. These differences are most clearly visible in the doctrine of Scripture, especially its inspiration, and the method for establishing true facts. Modern theology starts with scientific truth as a given and will not go against it. Pre-modern Christianity started with Scripture and assumed its inerrancy, by virtue of its speaker: God, who is inerrant.

Modernism is not easily defined in traditional terms, but it represents an overturning of biblical Christianity. In academic theology confessing and sure facts are disallowed by scientific and scholarly doubt. Modernism, or Enlightenmentism, explains why bold Christian confessing has diminished. Modern exegesis and hermeneutics are the primary obstacles.The destructive role of modernism and scientific values in historically confessing churches is explored, using the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as an example.

Posted on 3 Comments

Against All Odds: Heroes of Quantico

RITA Award winner Irene Hannon has also won the Holt Medallion for her romantic suspense. In this pulse-pounding thriller, the White House orders elite FBI operator Evan Cooper to secure Monica Callahan from a terrorist threat. But since Monica refuses all calls from her senior diplomat father, she sees no need for his round-the-clock protection-until a chilling “message” leaves no doubt.

Posted on Leave a comment

Against the Odds: Inspiration for Parenting Children with Special Needs

According to a U.S. census study, about 1 in 5 U.S. residents cope with special needs. Parents and caregivers who are faced with this issue of special needs experience feelings of denial, confusion, guilt, anger and hopelessness. Caring for special needs individuals is not an easy task, but it is possible. It is a journey that brings out the best in any individual who has chosen to embrace that challenge. The author gives the details of her journey as a mother of two boys with multiple special needs and illustrates the strategies that she has used to deal with the daily struggles that life presents her as she mothers her two children. She explains how acceptance of this challenge has led to it being the greatest blessing of her life. Against the odds is an inspiring narrative that will provide guidance for parents and caregivers who are searching for new tools and insights into how to raise children with special needs and for those who want to gain a deeper understanding of this important subject.

Posted on Leave a comment

Merchants in the Temple: Inside Pope Francis’s Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican

From a bestselling author with unprecedented access to Pope Francis, an investigative look at the recent financial scandals at the highest levels of the Vatican

A veritable war is waging in the Church: on one side, there is Pope Francis’s strong message for one church of the poor and all; on the other, there is the old Curia with its endless enemies, and the old and new lobbies struggling to preserve their not-so-Christian privileges.

The old guard do not back down, they are ready to use all means necessary to stay in control and continue the immoral way they conduct their business. They resist reforms sought by Pope Francis and seek to delegitimize their opponents, to isolate those who want to eliminate corruption. It’s a war that will determine the future of the church. And if he loses the battle against secular interests and blackmail, Pope Francis could resign, much like his predecessor.

Based on confidential information―including top secret documents from inside the Vatican, and actual transcripts of Pope Francis’s admonishments to the papal court about the lack of financial oversight and responsibility―Merchants in the Temple illustrates all the undercover work conducted by the Pope since his election and shows the reader who his real enemies are. It reveals the instruments Francis is using to reform the Vatican and rid it, once and for all, of the overwhelming corruption traditionally encrusted in the Roman Catholic Church.

Merchants in the Temple is a startling book that will shock every reader. It’s a story worthy of a Dan Brown novel, with its electrifying details of the trickery and scheming against the papacy―except that it is real.